Marillion – Misplaced Childhood

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono wearing bracelets of smokeNaked of understandingNicotine smears, long, long dried tears, invisible tearsSafe in my own words, learning from my own wordsCruel joke, cruel joke

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono a morning mare ridesIn the starless shutters of my eyesThe spirit of a misplaced childhood is rising to speak his mindTo this orphan of heartbreak, disillusioned and scarredA refugee, refugee , refugee

Kayleight

Do you remember chalk hearts melting on a playground wallDo you remember dawn escapes from moon washed college hallsDo you remember the cherry blossom in the market squareDo you remember I thought it was confetti in our hairBy the way didn’t I break your heart?Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heartSo sorry, I never meant to break your heartBut you broke mine

Kayleigh is it too late to say I’m sorry?And kayleigh could we get it together again?I just can’t go on pretending that it came to a natural end

Kayleigh, oh I never thought I’d miss youAnd kayleigh I thought that we’d always be friendsWe said our love would last foreverSo how did it come to this bitter end?

Do you remember barefoot on the lawn with shooting starsDo you remember loving on the floor in belsize parkDo you remember dancing in stilettoes in the snowDo you remember you never understood I had to goBy the way, didn’t I break your heart?Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heartSo sorry, I never meant to break your heartBut you broke mine

Kayleigh I just wanna say I’m sorryBut kayleigh I’m too scared to pick up the phoneTo hear you’ve found another lover to patch up our broken home

Kayleigh I’m still trying to write that love songKayleigh it’s more important to me now you’re goneMaybe it will prove that we were rightOr ever prove that I was wrong

Lavender

I was walking in the park dreaming of a sparkWhen I heard the sprinklers whisperShimmer in the haze of summer lawns.Then I heard the children singingThey were running through the rainbows.They were singing a song for youWell it seemed to be a song for youThe one I wanted to write for you , for you… you….

Bitter SuiteI – Brief EncounterA spider wanders aimlessly within the warmth of a shadowNot the regal creature of border cavesBut the poor, misguided, directionless familiar of some obscure scottish poetThe mist crawls from the canalLike some primordial phantom of romanceTo curl, under a cascade of neon pollenWhile I sit tied to the phone like an expectant fatherYour carnation will rot in a vase

B) lost weekendA train sleeps in a sidingThe driver guzzles another can of lager, lagerTo wash away the memories of a friday night down at the clubShe was a wallflower at sixteen, she’ll be a wallflower at thirty fourHer mother called her beautifulHer daddy said, a whore

C) blue angelThe sky was Bible black in lyon, when I met the magdaleneShe was paralyzed in a streetlightShe refused to give her nameAnd a ring of violet bruisesThey were pinned upon her armTwo hundred francs for sanctuary and she led me by the handTo a room of dancing shadows where all the heartache disappearsAnd from glowing tongues of candles I heard her whisper in my ear’j’entend ton coeur’, ‘j’entend ton coeur’I can hear your heart, I can hear your heart, I can hear your heartHear your heartI hear your heart

D) misplaced rendezvousIt’s getting late, for scribbling and scratching on the paperSomething’s gonna give under this pressure, and the cracks are already beginning to showIt’s too lateThe weekend career girl never boarded the planeThey said this could never happen againOh, so wrong, so wrongThis time it seems to be another misplaced rendezvousThis time, it’s looking like another misplaced rendezvousWith youThe parallel of you, you

V – Windswept ThumbOn the outskirts of nowhereOn the ringroad to somewhereOn the verge of indecisionI’ll always take the roundabout wayWaiting on the rainFor I was born with a habit, from a signThe habit of a windswept thumb, and the sign of the rainRain on me, rainIt’s started raining

Heart of Lothian

I) wide boy

Wide boys, wide boys, wide boysBorn with hearts of lothianWide boys, wide boysBorn with hearts of lothianWide boys, we were wide boysBorn with hearts of lothianThese hearts of lothian

Its six oclock in the tower blocksThe stalagmites of culture shockAnd the trippers of the light fantastic, bowdown, hoe-downSpray their pheremones on this perfume uniform

And anarchy smiles in the royal mileAnd theyre waiting on the slyboys, flyboys, wideboysRooting, tooting cowboysLucky little ladies at the watering holesTheyll score the friday night goals

I was born with a heart of lothianI was born with a heart of lothianI was born with a heart of lothianI was born with a heart of lothianI was born with a heart of lothian, with a heart of lothian.

II) Curtain Call
And the man from the magazine,
wants another shot of you all curled up.
‘Cos you look like an actor in a movie shot.
But you’re feeling like a wino in a parking lot.
How did I get here anyway?
Do we really need a playback of the show?
‘Cos the wideboys want to head for the watering holes,
watering holes, watering holes.
Let’s go.
And the man in the mirror has sad eyes.

Waterhole

When the taxis gather in mock Solemnity.Funeral hearses court the death in virginity,Was it paradise lost or paradise found?Did we gain respect or were we holding ground?You had found true love, or so you believedAnd the wideboys tattooed your hearts upon their sleeves.So when you think it’s time to go,when you think it’s time to go,Don’t be surprised, the heroes never show.And the patter merchants selling false impressions,Tipping eyes at the waitress with American expressions,Tie angels to the bar with sweet Martini’s and their charmsThey’re lying on every word and every armThey’re turning down their noses to the best linesAnd the cheap wines.And the wideboys,They wear their lovebites for their crimes.

So when you think it’s time to go,when you think it’s time to go,Don’t be surprised, the heroes never show.

Lords of the BackstageA love song with no validity.Pretend you never meant that much to me.Numb, a vallium child, bored by meaningless collisions.A lonely stretch of headlight, diamonds trapped in black ice.A mirror cracked along the white lines.I just wanted you to be the first one.I just wanted you to be the first one.Ashes are burning, burning.Ashes are burning, burning.A lifestyle with no simplicities.But I’m not asking for your sympathies.Talk, we never could talk, distanced by all that was between us.A lord of the backstage, a creature of language,I’m so far out and I’m too far in.I just wanted you to be the first one.I just wanted you to be the first one.Bridges are burning, burning.Bridges are burning, burning.Now, now, now, now

Blind CurveA) vocal under a bloodlight

Last night you said I was cold, untouchableA lonely piece of action from another townI just want to be free, Im happy to be lonelyCant you stay away? Just leave me alone with my thoughtsJust a runaway, just a runaway, Im saving myself

B) passing strangers

Strung out below a necklace of carnival lightsCold moan, held on the crest of the nightIm too tired to fight

So now were passing strangers, at single tablesStill trying to get over, still trying to write love songs for passing strangersAll those passing strangers

And the twinkling lies, all those twinkling liesSparkle with the wet ink on the paper

C) mylo

Oh I remember toronto when mylo went downAnd we sat and we cried on the phoneI never felt so aloneHe was the first of our ownSome of us go down in a blaze of obscuritySome of us go down in a haze of publicityThe price of infamy, the edge of insanity

Another holiday inn, another temporary homeAnd an interviewer threatened me with a microphonetalk to me, wont you tell me your stories.

So I talked about conscience and I talked about painAnd he looked out the window and it started to rainI thought maybe Ive already gone crazySo I reached for a bottle and he reached for the doorAnd I picked up the sleeping pills crushed on the floorInviting me to a casual obscenity

D) perimeter walk

It would be incredible if we could retrace all the times that we lived hereAll the collisionsWasted, Ive never been so wastedIve never been this far out before

Perimeter walkTheres a presence hereI feel could have been ancient, I could have been mystical

Theres a presenceA childhood, my childhoodMy childhood, childhoodA misplaced childhoodMy childhood, a misplaced childhoodGive it back to me, give it back to meA childhood, that childhood, that childhood, that childhood, that childhoodOh please give it back to me

E) threshold

I saw a war widow in a launderetteWashing the memories from her husbands clothesShe had medals pinned to a threadbare greatcoatA lump in her throat with cemetery eyes

I see convoys curbcrawling west german autobahnsTrying to pick up a warTheyre going to even the scoreOh… I cant take any moreI see black flags on factoriesSoup ladies poised on the lips of the poorI see children with vacant stares, destined for rape in the alleywaysDoes anybody care, I cant take any more!Should we say goodbye? Hey

I see priests, politicians? The heroes in black plastic body-bags under nations flagsI see children pleading with outstretched hands, drenched in napalm, this is no vietnam

I cant take any more, should we say goodbyeHow can we justify? They call us civilised!

Childhoods EndAnd it was morningAnd I found myself mourning,For a childhood that I thought had disappearedI looked out the windowAnd I saw a magpie in the rainbow, the rain had goneI’m not alone, I turned to the mirrorI saw you, the child, that once loved The child before they broke his heartOur heart, the heart that I believed was lost

Hey you, surprised? More than surprisedTo find the answers to the questionsWere always in your own eyes

Do you realise that you give it on back to her? But that would only be retraced in all the problems that you ever knewSo untrueFor she’s got to carry on with her lifeAnd you’ve got to carry on with yours

So I see it’s me, I can do anything And I’m still the child‘Cos the only thing misplaced was direction And I found directionThere is no childhood’s endYou are my childhood friend, lead me on

Hey you, you’ve survived. Now you’ve arrivedTo be reborn in the shadow of the magpie

Now you realise, that you’ve got to get out of hereYou’ve found the leading light of destiny, burning in the ashes of your memoryYou want to change the worldYou’d resigned yourself to die a broken rebelBut that was looking backwardNow you’ve found the light

You, the child that once lovedThe child before they broke his heartOur heart, the heart that I believed was lost

So it’s me I see, I can do anything. I’m still the child‘Cos the only thing misplaced was directionAnd I found directionThere is no childhood’s endI am your childhood friend, lead me on

White FeatherWhen I hit the streets back in ’81With a heart and a gown and a poet’s crown.I felt barbed wire kisses and icicle tears,Wearing at me for all these years.I saw political intrigue, political lies.Going to wipe those smiles of self-satisfaction from their eyesI will wear your white feather,I will wear your white flag,I will swear I have no nation,But I’m proud to own my heart.I will wear your white feather,I will wear your white flag,I will swear I have no nation,But I’m proud to own my heart.My heart, My heart,This is my heart.We don’t need your uniforms,We have no disguise,Divided we stand, together we rise.

[All the children, all the children,Tell your children…]

We will carry your white feathers,We will carry your white flags,We will swear we have no nation,But we’re proud to own our hearts.We will carry your white feathers,We will carry your white flags,We will swear we have no nation,But we’re proud to own our hearts.Our hearts, These are our hearts